Maggie Jackson is an award-winning author and journalist who writes the popular “Balancing Acts” column in the Boston Globe. Her work also has appeared in the New York Times and on National Public Radio, among other national publications. Her acclaimed first book, What’s Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age, examined the loss of home as a refuge. Her newest book is Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age.

In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Maggie Jackson discusses her controversial thesis about the downsides of the information age, and how the distractions from modern technologies lead to less critical thinking and less fulfilled lives. She explores the causes and effects of the erosion of attention, including media culture, the internet and personal communication devices, and even our fast-food culture, and how these impact relationships, work and personal identity. She details some advances in “attention science,” a field in cognitive neuroscience, and what it tells us about how people can overcome their distractions. And she shares what listeners can do to stop the erosion of attention in their lives.

It was quite relevant to something that occurred to me yesterday. My 7 year old son had his school report. In this report, the teachers mentioned that he liked to take extra time to make sure that his work was of a high standard and accurate before he finished it. They were saying that it was more important to get lots of different things done quickly in the short time periods that they allocate for their tasks (I actually felt the need to blog about this earlier! http://www.hancockfamily.org.uk/?p=37). Yes, multi-tasking is a good thing, but you would that schools should also encourage children to spend time thinking about things and ‘doing it right’ not ‘doing it fast’

Simon

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“If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel Prize” - Richard P. Feynman

It was quite relevant to something that occurred to me yesterday. My 7 year old son had his school report. In this report, the teachers mentioned that he liked to take extra time to make sure that his work was of a high standard and accurate before he finished it. They were saying that it was more important to get lots of different things done quickly in the short time periods that they allocate for their tasks (I actually felt the need to blog about this earlier! http://www.hancockfamily.org.uk/?p=37). Yes, multi-tasking is a good thing, but you would that schools should also encourage children to spend time thinking about things and ‘doing it right’ not ‘doing it fast’

Simon

“If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?”

I don’t see clearly that our atention has been suffered in the last years. Yes, maybe we have more kids now with attention problems, but it could mean that we know more about behaviour and mental disorders.

It was an interesting show, except that she seemed to make a lot of assertions as to cause for these problems, without back up.
Maybe her book has more references to studies and such that would back up these assertions.

I used to think that multi-tasking was good and that I was really good at it, but know I think that there is much loss of efficiency in the context switching.

One of the worst culprits I see is the damn sound everyone’s blackberrys make when they receive and email, suddenly no-one is paying attention, esp. if they all receive the same email from the big boss.

Distracted sounds like it will be an interesting read. I recently read Susan Jacoby’s The Age of American Unreason after listening to DJ’s podcast with her. I think there will be parallels between the two books based on what Maggie Jackson was saying. One of Susan Jacoby’s main ideas is that we ought not to let babies and children watch so much tv/video. Her contention is that it turns them into passive people who find books boring. The visuals and music of tv and video overwhelm the senses, she thinks, and then prevent children from ever being able to focus well. Maggie Jackson would probably agree with that assessment. Her anecdote about the “quiet rooms” in the airport is so typical. Anywhere you go there is “background” music on or a TV - doctors offices, stores, restaurants, interstate rest stops, etc. I have difficulty reading and thinking with all that noise. When I read now I seldom turn on any music although I always used to have it on at home. I think I just can’t bear the constant sound anymore. And if you watch television you know that there is never a moment of silence. If there is you look to see what went wrong. I’m older and remember when they weren’t so good at fitting all the commercials in between the tv shows. Very often there would be a gap in the sound and even then it seemed like a relief!

Thanks for another interesting interview!

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There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality.David HumeinAn Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

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